Later that evening, I was feeling significantly better. When Vera had returned with a pack stuffed near to bursting with food and supplies, we’d agreed that in the morning we’d set forth into the sewers. I still had to grab my gear from home and tie up a few loose ends, so we settled down after I rented my own bed at the Twirling Daisy for the night. Going home was probably safe for one night, but we agreed it was still a slight risk, and the Daisy was very reasonable, at 6 copper pieces for the night.
The morning light found the two of us meeting for a quick breakfast of porridge, before heading over to the apartment. “Alright, wait here a moment, I just need to grab a few things, then swing by Jerome’s Forge and we’re good to go.” I jogged up the stairs, not waiting for Vera’s vague murmur of acceptance. As it turned out, she wasn’t much of a morning person, and hadn’t said much more than the absolute minimum since waking.
Sweeping into the apartment, I moved quickly, practically vibrating with excitement. I’d hardly been able to sleep, the thought of actually achieving the dream I’d held since childhood filling my mind with visions of adventure. Barging into the room, I rooted around beneath the mattress, pulling out the blade there, stopping for a moment to unsheath it, grinning all the while. I knew it wasn’t chipped or rusted, the steel shortsword was my most treasured possession and I oiled it frequently, but I checked it over anyway. I placed it on the bed before grabbing my considerably rougher boiled leather armor from the shelf above the bed. Strapping on the bracers and greaves, I slipped into the heavy armored coat, draping halfway down my thighs. Strapping the blade to my hip, I turned at the noise behind me, finding Marum blinking sleepily in the doorway.
“What’s going on? Why are you wearing that?” Marum’s eyes narrowed as he scratched at his head, hand practically disappearing beneath his mop of curly hair.
“The guild burned down, didn’t you hear? Anyway, me and Vera are going hunting. Needed my gear.”
“Uh huh. Wait, it burned down?!” Marum’s head rocked back as shock wiped the sleep from his face.
I chuckled, shaking my head as I shoved spare clothing, soap and a toothbrush into the bag. “Oh yes, to the ground. You truly missed that? Anyway, I’m paid up with Mrs. Havers for the month, don’t go through my stuff while I’m gone. If the blondie bitch or any of his lackeys start asking after me, tell him I’ve gone hunting, or whatever you want.”
“Ooh is that what we’re calling Tyrion now? Love it. Should I be worried?”
I laughed once more. “For me? Probably. Doubt he’ll bother you though. Just tell them to eat shit if they try to bother you, I doubt anyone would assume we’re close just because we’re roommates.” I looked over my room once more, pointedly avoiding looking at the loose board beneath the bed. I couldn’t grab the shards with Marum standing there, and besides, they’d be safer here than bouncing around in my pack while I was getting into who knew what kind of scraps. Losing them in the sewers… it might just break me.
“Alright, that’s everything I care about. I’ll be back… soonish, I think. Maybe a week or two, don’t know. If you’re worried about Tyrion, talk to Mrs. Havers. Can’t imagine she can’t scare him off,” I grinned, imagining the tiny delphin woman going off on the arrogant prick. I brushed past Marum, walking to the door. Pausing, I glanced back at the tidy, if a bit barren space.
Marum sighed, nodding at him. “Alright, well, have fun I suppose. I’ll see you when I see you then. Perhaps a beer when you return?” He added, sounding hopeful.
I rolled my eyes. Marum was incessant. “Fine, yes, we’ll go out for a pint when I’m back. One, though. I’m serious.”
The short fellow clapped, grinning. “Excellent! See you then!”
Closing the door behind, I breathed deeply, ignoring the unsavory scent of the back alley air. I jogged down the stairs, meeting Vera as she stood from where she’d been leaning against the wall of the sturdy stone building.
She muffled a yawn, stretching her back with a series of loud pops. “Alright, forge next, right?”
I nodded, already walking in the direction of Jerome’s shop. “Yeah, I just need to drop something off and let the owner know I won’t be back for a while.”
The journey to the forge was quick, though it felt longer than usual, anxious as I was to get moving. The heat greeted them first, then the muffled rhythmic pinging of the chisels Jerome was so fond of escaping through the open doors of the forge. I didn’t waste any time, setting the guide down for the Endure glyph on the back table, and quickly explaining to Jerome that I wouldn’t be back for a while, though I wondered silently if I would ever be back, truly. Glyphs were a hobby, expensive to use, and hopefully a way to make up for my lack of magic. But if hunting with Vera worked out, I wouldn’t need their crutch much longer.
Waving to Jerome, I strode outside to Vera once more. Sweeping an arm low before her, I looked up grinning. “Shall we?” Vera only snorted, then strode away, shaking her head. We quickly moved to the outer wall, following it along the wide curve of the city.
Finally deigning to speak, Vera muttered “Closest and largest entrance is at the outlet into the river. There’s a hatch, shouldn’t be much farther.” True to her word, it only took another few minutes of walking to find the hatch set into the cobbled path abutting the wall, the overlapping circles of the Triumvirate crest stamped into the heavy iron. With a grunt, Vera twisted the latch and pulled the massive cover open, rusty hinges squealing obnoxiously in the early morning light. I choked back a gag at the smell wafting out. Setting her pack down, Vera dug around for a moment, before pulling out a lantern with a line of glyphs running up the side. Pressing her thumb to the topmost glyph, the tiny fleck of stone suspended within burst with radiance, shedding brilliant reddish light in all directions before dimming to a soft glow. She handed it to me, before pulling out a second lantern from her pack. “Don’t lose that, and let me know if it starts to dim, I’ll have to refresh it every few hours.” I nodded and looped the chain around the belt on my right hip, out of the way of my blade.
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Vera finished lighting the lanterns and shouldered her pack. “Alright, once we’re down there, no speaking. Sound carries far in the tunnels, and we want to hear what's out there, and not have them hear us, got it?” Seeing my nod of understanding, she continued. “I’ll be in front, but keep your eyes to our flanks. The walls aren’t in great shape, and they can be big enough to hide in. Don’t want to be ambushed. If we’re quiet enough, we’ll sneak up on one of the kobold and follow it to the den. If that’s the case, I want you to stay at whatever entrance we find, and stop them from leaving that way. I’ll go in and do my thing, but every one that escapes is another one that we’ll want to track down. I assume you know how to use that?” She asked, gesturing to the sword belted on his waist.
“Yes. I’ve done a bit of training, watching some of the guilders in the training yard, and I killed a few rats back home with it.”
“Good enough. Best teacher is experience, anyway. Alright, let's get moving.” With that, she grabbed the edge of the open hatch, lowering herself down on the rusty iron ladder.
I swallowed. I hadn’t lied, but it had been some time since I’d really used my sword. I stopped to run my hand over the crest, whispering a quick prayer, “Hear me Llyr, please guide and protect us.” I was done with the temple, but a little luck couldn’t hurt. Glancing back down the narrow cobbled street I frowned, wishing I’d thought to pray at one of the shrines along the way, placed at every large intersection in town. I shrugged, too late for that now. I’d just have to hope that for once, the god was listening from beyond the veil. I stepped down onto the ladder, struggling for a moment to pull the hatch shut behind me before it slammed shut with an ear splitting bang. I cringed, looking over at Vera below. She shook her head, whispering “It’s fine, but we need to move.”
With that we set off into the dark, walking along the raised stone walkway running along either side of a wide slow moving river of muck. Vera set a quick pace, just slow enough that we were still silent, as I followed closely on her heels. The air was thick and cloying, and seemed to diffuse the light from the lamps, lighting only a few paces in any direction. Whenever they reached an intersection, Vera drew a wicked knife from the sheath on her hip, marking an arrow with the number 4 on it into the crumbling stone of the wall. Turning away and seeing Brams confused gesture, she motioned him closer.
“I’ve been down here before, remember? Day four for markings, don’t want to get mixed up.”
I nodded in understanding, it was a clever system. The sewers of the city were far more ancient than anything above ground, remnants of a much older settlement, the name lost to time. We moved on. It wasn’t long before we began hearing the sounds of creatures moving about in the shadowed tunnels, and coming around a bend we spied a few of the massive rats so common to cities this far south. Vera motioned me forward, and I slowly drew my sword. Vera continued to wave me forward, silently mouthing ‘Show me’. With a sharp nod, I slowly crept closer, grip tightening as I passed from beneath the shadow of an overhang, light falling on the clustered rats.
With a chorus of harsh squeaks, they turned, baring bloodied teeth. I didn’t hesitate, stepping forward and stabbing down hard, pinning the first of the knee high rats to the stone below and kicking its nearest brethren hard enough to send it tumbling into another. Farther back, the light gleamed off of a beady eye as one of the rats coiled, springing forward and over their fallen comrade with black claws spread. My eyes widened, taking a step back and swinging my sword for the flying rodent, missing by a hair's breadth. I twisted, the rat’s claws raking across a bracer as it tumbled by, landing in the river of refuse with a flat plop! That one dealt with for the moment, I turned back to the remaining creatures, unable to spare the attention to wait to see if it would crawl back out of the muck.
Gripping my blade with both hands, I slashed at the remaining 2 rats, recovered from their tumble and now surging towards my legs with a chorus of hissing. I managed to catch one across the face with a glancing slice, the creature scrabbling at its wounded eye, screeching. The second evaded my wide follow up stab, launching into my legs, sinking its massive teeth into my greave and fouling my footing. Tripping over a tail, I fell back, landing hard on the stone, kicking at the creature frantically to get it off as panic flared within my mind. Dislodged, the rat surged into the gap between my feet, but met only unforgiving steel, as I brought the sword down hard, nearly bisecting the rodent. The final rat was already fleeing incoherently, tripping over the body of the first rat as it sprinted blindly into the dark.
I heaved a sigh, sitting for a moment to catch my breath as my heart beat slowed, before remembering the rat that had taken a dive behind me with a start. Whirling as I flew to my feet, I stopped as I got a good look. Vera stood above what remained of the rat, smashed flat into the grooved stone floor. She nodded at me with a small smile, coming closer to quietly add, “Not bad. Need to remember every enemy in a fight, but not bad.” Clapping me on the shoulder, she jerked her chin past the strewn rat corpses. “That made some noise, and we’ll likely have attracted the attention of our real prey. Let’s head back a bit and wait to see what comes poking around.”
Retreating around the bend, we huddled into an alcove- shuttering the lamps, and waited. It wasn’t long before the sound of loud sniffing alerted us that something had arrived. Motioning for me to stay put, Vera peeled herself out of the tight alcove, and crept along the bend in the tunnel with practiced grace. The soft leather of her boots made almost no sound at all, and as she crept away, I soon lost her in the near total darkness. The lack of light started playing tricks on my mind almost immediately, with Vera’s absence seeming to drag on and on, and forcing me to strain to try and make out any movement in the darkness. A sharp bark from further up the tunnel made me clench every muscle in my body to stop from jolting and alerting however many creatures were lurking in the dark. My heart raced as I poked my head out from the alcove, seeing nothing but shadows in every direction. That bark was all too familiar, I had no doubt as to its origin. Kobolds. I gripped my sword in its sheath with white knuckles, barely daring to breathe in case the sound would cover the sound of approaching clawed feet. I waited like a statue, heart pounding in my ears, dreading discovery.
I nearly cried out when a tiny speck of light appeared, lighting the floor in a small circle before going dark again. Then the sound of quiet footsteps reached the alcove, and Vera’s shadow loomed out of the murk. Stepping up to the alcove, she again graced us with a tiny amount of light, opening the shutter on her lantern by a miniscule movement. The lantern lit her dangerous smile from below, adding shadows to her carmine complexion and lending her a terrifying visage in the darkness. “Alright, just one of them showed, but they grabbed the rats. I bet they headed back to a nest, so we need to follow, at a distance. We’ll keep the lanterns as low as possible, but we have to be extremely quiet. They hunt mostly by scent and sound, but luckily the water should help cover our tracks. Their nest will probably be lit within, so when we get close, we’ll shut the lanterns entirely to give us an extra moment of surprise. Now come on, we don’t want it to get away!”
I swallowed, then whispered, “Okay, let's move.” Following Vera into the darkness once more, an icy fist seemed to grip my gut, as jitters made me feel jerky and reactive. I breathed deeply, nose wrinkling at the smell, focusing on the tiny pool of light from Vera’s lantern as they slowly walked down the tunnel, closer to the kobolds, and I dearly hoped, closer to a reckoning.